10.02.2014

frogger

So much knitting lately - and just as much learning. I had been making good progress on my Aureus cardigan until I realized that I had neglected to do the decreases. I was knitting happily along towards the 8.25 mark as I read in the pattern, but I was thinking inches whereas PomPom thinks in centimeters - Brits, after all. My own fault for not reading more carefully.

I set it down for a solid day or so until I had the heart to rip back about 5 inches and start again. It wasn't so bad: after a concentrated day of effort I'm already past where I was when I realized the mistake. But this has been an interesting period of growth, realizing that I'm not nearly as stressed about frogging as I once was; I'm now confident in my ability to pick up stitches, even in a lace pattern - and I'm happily able to intentionally drop stitches to correct mistakes a row or two below, confident that I can pick them up again appropriately. This is major progress for me, but at the same time I feel like it should be familiar territory - a former art school student, I'm (mostly) comfortable with the idea that making is really all about the process, not the result.

But I suppose that's not entirely the case with this knit, or even future knits. I spent my first year or more of knitting following patterns exactly, caring more about the interest or difficulty of a yarn/pattern combination than the actual end result; that year resulted in a lot of gift-giving (and subsequently probably a lot of unworn knits). Other than a camping hat, there isn't a single item from that year of knitting that I personally wear or use. In a way it's a shame - all that time! all that money on beautiful yarn! - but I know how much I learned in that first year. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a novice knitter entirely, but I'm no longer afraid of mistakes. I'm not even afraid of modifying patterns anymore - within reason, of course.

But back to results. As the internet continually bubbles over about the benefits of building the perfect, minimalist wardrobe, I must admit I have started to take heed. I've written before about my desire and interest in minimizing my worldly possessions, and it is a major goal of mine to start making more of our clothes by hand - and as time consuming of a process as that is, it's obviously important that these made-by-hand items become long lasting staples in wardrobe rotation. That's why this year I'm also focusing on only knitting pieces in styles and shapes I know work for me, especially if they fall into the I-need-more-of-this-item category. So cardigans in classic colors it is! (On that note, I have to admit that the Honey colorway definitely goes more green than I'd like - in a certain light it's a true, bright bronze-y gold, but mostly I think it's on the olive side. I'm not stressing about it, but I am already considering trying this cardigan again in another more truly neutral shade.)

For all the above reasons and more, there's definitely more frogging in my future... but more on that in another post.

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P.S. Do you see that? That in the lower right corner of this picture? That would be a glorious ray of fall Portland sunshine, my friends. It seems we didn't move up here just in time for the rainy winter - apparently October here, as in Northern California, is generally a beautiful month. Seems a girl just can't get any luckier than me.